Ascent - The Space Game


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The Fall

It began with the banks. All greed and no caution led to a chain of collapses. Businesses followed them down, and one by one the big names fell. Then the governments started going bust. First the planetary governments, then the interplanetary.

We lost our savings. We lost our jobs. We lost our homes, and we began to lose each other. There were riots for food. At first the government quelled them, but later, there was no government, and nobody to put a stop to the violence, which spread, burning through our worlds like fire through dry grass. Cities burned, and emptied, and lay in ruin.

Nobody kept the libraries, the archives, or the news feeds, and we started losing our memory, our knowledge, our technology, our future. We began to fall.

Nobody was left to keep maintaining our communications networks, our star gates between the worlds, or our space stations, and one by one, they began to fail. We have lost contact with many colonies. They are now alone in the black. Finally, burning and war torn, Earth itself was lost to us when the last of the star gates failed.

Just eight systems remain connected. A tiny portion of the military remained loyal. With no pay and little provisions, they still keep the peace. Arrayed against them are all the forces of anarchy, chaos and terror. They stand alone, holding back the flood.

Our systems are failing. Our people are starving and lost. Our factories empty and silent, our fields sown with weeds. Chaos is consuming our whole race, one town, one city, one planet at a time. We are running out of food, components, and material. We are running out of time. We are running out of hope.

We have almost lost our place in the stars.

 

You can change it. If you can hear this message, you are one of just 0.3% of the population whose neural patterns can interface with the control systems of a modern space craft. You can carry people and material from places of abundance to places in short supply. You can help feed the hungry, supply silent factories with goods and hands to make the light shine again. You can help us rebuild everything we have lost. Together, we will rebuild the gates and reconnect with our lost people.

And through great combined effort, we will rebuild even the gates to our lost homeworld.

Citizens of Earth. We... are going... Home.

 

Ascent - Season One

In Season One, the player is asked by Susan Steele for vital aid in rebuilding her business empire and beginning to restore order to the human race. Early priorties are food, followed by the raw materials of industry. After helping Susan to re-start her operations, the player is given an opportunity to begin production systems of their own. Initially in raw materials, later in refining and heavy industry.

Season One is the turning point for humanity. Either the player will lift us from the encroaching Dark Age, or the great downfall will be upon us.

 

Ascent - Season Two

In Season Two, the player is invited by the United Nations Combined Arms (UNCA - the last remnants of the military) into the Janus binary system to help protect the wealthy Janus Merchant Cabal against the pirate Syndicate.

Season Two is the first foray into Space Combat for the player. The player will optionally be able to select a season two starting position, although the S1 missions will still be available.

 

Ascent - Season Three

In Season Three, players are able to begin expanding the human race's settlements with their own colony. Using technology found via the Deep Six quest line, players can explore the Milky Way around the Apollo sector, and place colonies at will. Colonies can be made habitable with the construction and operation of Environmental Domes.

Season Three is where we start to claw our way back into the stars.